Monday, January 30, 2012

The first image that comes to most minds when they hear the 'K' word for Kashmir, is the lack of peace. Depending upon which side of the opinion fence they are sitting, they will also visualize injustice, refugees, myths, oppression, terrorism and so on. There are plenty of movies made, documentaries presented, numerous propaganda material over the internet and innumerable government material in India, Pakistan, China, Britain, US and other countries, not to mention the UN Security Council.

This blog is not to focus in depth the issues that most people are already talking about. The attempt of this blog is to list some of the "not so famous" injustices and a few myths involving Jammu and Kashmir state. Most of the information is collected from people with first hand knowledge of Jammu region and Kashmir valley or those who have spent a good deal of time methodically researching the related material. All kind of comments, corrections and opinions are welcome, as long as they are not obscene or attacking a commentator writing comment.

So here we go without any further delay, listing 9 Injustices:

1. Injustice to refugees in general: There are close to 19,00,000 refugees in Jammu region of the state, among a population of 55,00,000. That's close to 35% of the population in some kind of refugee status or shelter. Very few people actually talk about them.

A refuge camp for displaced Kashmiris. {Source: kashmir-information}

Out of these 19,00,000 refugees, 4,00,000 are the Hindu Pandits cleansed from Kashmir valley since 1990, 4,00,000 are descendants of non Jammu and Kashmir state refugees who came from Pakistan during the bloody 1947 partition, and 10,00,000 are the descendants of Jammu and Kashmir state refugees who are technically "internally" displaced as they came from Kashmir parts which are now under China or Pakistan's occupation. These technically internal refugees ran to Jammu region of India during 1947 when Pakistani raiders and communal elements forced out the non-Muslim population. The last group of refugees are the 1,00,000 people of Jammu hills who moved to safer places due to recent waves of terrorism. It's also natural that many of these either already sending their children to Delhi, Mumbai or other cities for job, or planning to send, considering the pathetic living conditions in refugee camps or settlements.

Islamic Terrorism caused Kashmir Refugees. {Source: thekashmir}

Very few people ever talk about these refugees, their victim-hood and the pathetic conditions in which most are living.

2. Injustice to Other Backward Castes (OBC): Jammu and Kashmir is probably the only state in India where there is no reservation for OBCs.The state constitution is silent on OBCs and so is the state administration. There is no count also done like in other Indian states. It's surprising that the champions of backward castes in India are silent when it comes to Jammu and Kashmir OBCs.

3. Injustice to Scheduled Tribes (STs): Anywhere from 10-18% of Jammu and Kashmir population is STs. A 10 year old Government of India census data shows 10.9%, but actual numbers today may be higher per those with first hand knowledge. Out of the refugees in Jammu, who moved from Pakistan, nearly 75% are SCs or STs. Indian constitution guarantees affirmative action and political reservation for SC/STs. But in Jammu and Kashmir, this is not the case! Contrast this with Uttar Pradesh, where less than 1% of the population is ST, but they have political reservation. These refugee STs have no voting rights, no property, no admission to colleges. No human rights for them? If they had any clue of how badly they would be treated in Jammu and Kashmir, who knows, they would have migrated to some other state in India during 1947-48 carnage that happened in the Pakistan region. For instance, nearly 48,000 Hindus and Sikhs got killed just around Mirpur and Muzaffarabad areas of Jammu and Kashmir within Pakistan now. These people are descendants of those who ran away just to save their lives, with least botheration about legal implications of their intended settlement area.

Even for Scheduled Castes of Jammu and Kashmir, there was no political reservation as recently as 2007 in the state. It took a Supreme Court ruling to tell the government in Srinagar to correct this grave mistake. We need to wait and see how this is really implemented.

4. Injustice to grass-root governance (Panchayati Raj): Jammu and Kashmir has seen probably the lowest number of grass root elections, or Panchayat elections in India. They were held in 1964, 1971 and 1978, before being resumed in 2011. They might have been held in 1959 too, but we are not sure. Every other state in India sees Panchayat elections once every 5 years, so this has historically been a big blow to democracy at grass root level. Local governance is always the best governance.

5. Injustice to Jammu and Ladakh Regions: Jammu and Ladakh continue to be given second-class treatment in Jammu and Kashmir state. Even though Jammu has 27,000 sq.km of area and 32,00,000 voters, it gets only 37 seats' representation in the State assembly. But Kashmir valley that has 15,000 sq.km of area with 28,00,000 voters, gets 44 seats, plus potential 2 nominations! In Jammu region, 15-20% of land, government jobs and businesses are owned by Kashmir valley Muslims. But the reverse is not found in the Kashmir valley. Sparingly populated Ladakh on the other hand has always expressed interest to become a separate state or Union territory in India. It's area of 59,000 sq.km is much bigger than states like Manipur and Nagaland. But its voices are ignored and it is lumped with Kashmir valley and being treated as second class within the state.

Jammu, the land of temples. {Source: Destination360}

It is not fashionable to present Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists or Muslims of these two regions in TV debates, so most people don't even know their real problems.

Except Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is half Kashmiri and half Jammuite, no other Chief Minister of the state has hailed from Jammu or Ladakh regions in nearly 6 decades!

Ladakh region does not have any university with access to professional education. It had only one degree college till a few years back. When you look at the 59,000 sq.km of rugged, hilly area, you can imagine how much access the sparsely populated districts had to higher education.

6. Injustice to villagers close to international border: The villagers within 20-30 KM of Pakistan border face repeated refugee status. They were evacuated for reasons understandable, during 1948, 1965, 1971 and 1999 wars with Pakistan. These 2 to 3,00,000 people will have to wait for years to get back to their villages after the war. Some times it could take up to 7 years after a war to de-mine their fields. There is very little help for their lives that get periodically uprooted.

7. Injustice to 1947-48 Refugees from today's Pakistan area:
Lakhs of refugees don't have state subject certificates. This means, they can't buy property, can't get government jobs or cast their vote in Jammu and Kashmir elections! And.. these are third or fourth generation citizens of India who were unfortunately uprooted from their grand fathers' villages/towns, which are today in Pakistan. How many places on this planet can you show people who are born and brought up in the state, but not treated as state subjects when it comes to jobs, voting or residency?

Who will listen to the problems of the refugees, who were mostly Hindus migrating from Sialkot which is in today's Pakistan (and as a coincidence, from where Indian PM Manmohan Singh's family migrated from too, but luckily to a different state) to Jammu and Kashmir after partition? Their unfulfilled promises and betrayal is very well captured in these videos.

It is very apparent that the second class treatment is meted out to these, because they are non Muslims.For instance, a small group of Muslims who moved in from Tibet in late 1950s were given Jammu and Kashmir state subject status and citizenship, and were settled in Hariparbat area of Srinagar. These 8 to 10,000 Tibetans had no connection what-so-ever with Jammu and Kashmir, but still given special privilege, most likey due to their religion.

8. Injustice to Kashmiris being ruled by Pakistan and/or China: The areas under Pakistan's control are Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan. China controls the Aksai Chin and some parts of Gilgit. Neither Pakistan, nor China, ever had any accession legal document signed in favour of them by Jammu and Kashmir's administration at the time of 1947-48. So their entire occupation is illegal and understandably, the Kashmiris living under their rule totally oppose their rule. In fact, in 1994, Pakistan's Supreme Court upheld the Muzaffarabad High Court decision that Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan) are NOT a part of Pakistan, but a part of State of Jammu and Kashmir. If one opens Pakistan's constitution, it technically rules out PoK (termed as Azad Kashmir in Pakistan) and Northern Areas as parts of Pakistan.

PoK essentially contains Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Rawlakot, Neelam, Kotli, Poonch (Pak part) and Bagh areas, which are more linked culturally & ethnically to Jammu region. Their language is similar to Dogri, Pahadi and Punjabi. Kashmiri speaking people are very limited or non-existent in most of these areas today. Baltistan was a western district of Ladakh before illegally occupied by Pakistan in 1948.

The police chief, state chief, the intelligence chiefs of PoK are selected by the Pakistan federal government. Kashmiris have no say on these important selections. So much for "azadi" of freedom/self-determination! Nothing exposes the hypocrisy of Pakistan in claiming "azad" or "free" status for these illegally occupied areas, than the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, declaring PoK as NOT FREE at all, in 2008!

Unlike India, there is no Article 370 kind of exclusive rights to Jammu and Kashmir state subjects in Pakistan. A huge difference!

Truth about PoK: Video depicts the problems of Kashmiris under Pakistan's control like those in Muzaffarabad, who struggle for jobs & human rights. Their alienation is well depicted here. In fact 70% are daily wage labourers and 75% are food-insecure.Unlike the pampered Kashmiris of Srinagar in India, these unfortunate Kashmiris stuck in Pakistan have 35-40% below poverty population as this video explains:

To make all these worse, a part of Hunza-Gilgit called Raskam and the Shaksgam Valley of Baltistan region, was ceded by Pakistan to the China in 1963. This illegally ceded area of Jammu and Kashmir, measuring 1000s of sq.km, is also known as the Trans-Karakoram Tract. This was a complete betrayal on the people of Jammu and Kashmir as without any consent from them or government of India which legally has accession of the entire state, a large chunk was illegally given to China by Pakistan. China holds the areas ceded by Pakistan on Trans Karakoram track and also an uninhabited part towards the east called Aksai Chin. Here is some information on China's discreet hold on Pakistan's Northern Borderlands today.

"a simmering rebellion against Pakistani rule and the influx of an estimated 7,000 to 11,000 soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army."

9. Injustice to Indians as a whole - The Article 370: No constitutional article has spawned so much debate in India since 1950s as the infamous Article 370 from 1954. Originally, this was supposed to be a procedural mechanism or an interim arrangement during war time and also during a time when UN was involved. Just a few lines drafted in here by Jawaharlal Nehru and Gopalaswami Iyengar has caused immense damage to Kashmiris as well as non-Kashmiri Indians. Neither of them were constitutional experts, legal experts or constitution authors. In gist, this article was supposed to say - "Jammu and Kashmir constitution would be extended with Jammu and Kashmir Assembly's consultation, concurrence and recommendation". But the way it was drafted was not legal, as the key legal authority was Maharajah Hari Singh, the ruler of the princely Jammu and Kashmir kingdom. If there is ONE blunder that has sustained lots of dimensions to this "problem", it is Article 370. No wonder almost everyone we have talked to, say this article must go. It is good to hear that at least recently a 99 year lease proposal is extended to everyone in India to invest in land in Jammu and Kashmir for job creation purpose. This is a good step in removing alienation of Kashmiris from rest of India, which was made up of 600 odd such kingdoms or provinces in 1947.

Article 370 is frankly neither a Hindu-Muslim thing, nor a Congress-BJP kind of political thing. It's pure discrimination legalized to benefit mostly a very small minority of Muslims of India who happen to be Kashmiris.Even the rest of Indian Muslims, whose number is easily 18-20 times bigger than Jammu and Kashmir's Muslim population, don't benefit from this illogical clause in the constitution.

Here is a view, of course backed by solid facts, demonstrating a highly pampering aspect of this exclusivity granted to a small percentage of Indian population, via Article 370. It is also worth noting that Article 370 has been used to keep many progressive laws out of Jammu and Kashmir.

Let's also examine a couple of myths that you will hear the moment you talk of Kashmir.

Two maps would illustrate most of the things we want to convey on this important sub topic. Here is the tiny valley that everyone focus on as "Kashmir problem".

However, the image below is the reality of Jammu and Kashmir entire state, including the parts illegally occupied by Pakistan and China.

Entire Jammu and Kashmir {Source: Kaulonline.com}

Thus "Kashmir" that media portrays is about 7% in area of undivided Jammu and Kashmir, or about 15% of Jammu and Kashmir state within India today. Ladakh, about 59,000 sq.km in area, which is 58% Buddhist, plus has a Muslim region of Kargil, has no "problem". Jammu, about 27,000 sq.km in area, which is about 70% Hindu ha no "problem". So essentially, 86,000 sq.km of Jammu and Kashmir which is under Indian control today, has no alienation or "problem".

Now over to some poverty analysis: Anywhere from 32 to 40% of India as a whole is BPL or Below Poverty Line today. That's a massive number of people as well as percentage in a 1.2 billion country. During the last comprehensive listing of states, Jammu and Kashmir was shown as having just around 5% BPL population. Even if you adjust to the ever changing BPL criteria, the total BPL population in the entire state would be in single digits, far smaller than most of India. And here is the most interesting thing. Almost all this BPL is in Jammu and Ladakh region, and not in the Kashmir valley. So the so called "oppressed" valley is better off in terms of income levels, than most parts, if not all parts of India! Those familiar with Srinagar and surrounding areas tell about the quality of rice in public distribution system, the quality of houses, heating system during winter etc. No wonder when 100s die in rest of north Indian states closer during each cold wave during winters, no major casualties get reported from the Kashmir valley.

Coming to jobs. There are around 4,00,000 government jobs in Kashmir valley alone! That is about 6 to 7% of the entire valley's population employed the government. I don't think there can be another state or division in India where you can find such a high number of population on government pay roll! Let's not get into who might have taken over the 60,000 odd government jobs that Kashmiri Pandits were in, before they were kicked out of the valley by gun totting Jihadis squad.

Land: Jammu and Kashmir was probably the first state in India that reformed land, essentially giving lands to the tiller in late 1940s. Most of the large land owning Kashmiri Pandits lost huge amounts of land overnight.If one looks into the land ownership in Kashmir valley today, almost everything would be owned by Muslims.

If one is serious to learn about learning statistics of how Muslims, particularly Kashmir valley Muslims, are dominating every segment of Jammu and Kashmir administration, check out this highly informative link.

So plenty of government jobs, plenty of government package/investments, complete land ownership, lack of poverty compared to rest of India, must tell us that the whole Kashmiri Muslim victimization campaign is quite shaky.

To Conclude:

Let the governments in Srinagar and New Delhi look into the injustices listed seriously, and work to resolve them. Because if there is any "problem" in Jammu and Kashmir today, that is mostly created and nurtured by these two cities. Constantly pampering to a minority even within Jammu and Kashmir state is not the answer, but a holistic approach to correct the injustices is a good step forward.

Further Reading/Viewing Material:

The links provided below by online friends cover a wide variety of topics touched above, as well as those involving security, geography, speech extracts, administration and challenges. They are from a wide variety of authentic sources, and presented in no particular order.

Kashmir Issue - Arun Jaitley's perspective in 2010: Arun Jaitley talks about the current situation and the Government of India's poor handling of the situation. We included this link as it covers most of the short-comings of the government's handling of the Kashmir issue from a political perspective.This and the next few links shared by @pvaidyaraj on Twitter.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Now that we are done with New Year 2012 euphoria, how about spending some time to recollect some of the top sins of Congress party in the past year 2011?

One of my online friend joked.. even Rajnikanth wouldn't be able to count the sins of Congress. Another one cautioned that listing sins of Congress is like counting till infinity! But still, a *brave* voice inside me says, don't listen to naysayers.. try it once.

So here I go with the top 10 sins, more like, listing of the top-10 SIN sections as there is so much info shared by my Twitter friends. Feel free to add more in the comments section.

Sin #1: The Midnight crackdown at Ramlila and subsequent death of Rajbala:

In what most people who watched live on TV described, Congress manipulated and blatantly avoided an inevitable losing vote in the parliament in December 2011. CNN-IBN in fact showed right from 10.50 PM onwards, till midnight, exactly how Congress manipulated & used Lalu Prasad's party as a pawn in this murder of democracy at midnight. Utterly shameful sin considering that they had back-stabbed Anna Hazare team on a stronger Lokpal bill called Janlokpal earlier.

In a cynical and blatant display of political manipulation, the UPA government ensured that there was no voting on the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha. As predicted, members of the Rashtriya Janata Party and Samwajwadi Party created utter chaos in the House during the reply of the government to the debate, which was being made by Minister of State (PMO) V Narayanswamy.

Sin #3: Harassing Subramanian Swamy for his crusade against 2G scam culprits, including an alleged attack on his house:

The year was hostile towards Subarmanian Swamy. Not just attack on his house which he told in multiple interviews as a handwork of Congress guys, he also got FIRs, notices and much more. The reason blamed was his article in DNA newspaper, but it was clear for a neutral observer that him putting Team Sonia in dock for 2G scam had a lot to do with the reaction.

Sin #4: Retaining Chidambaram as the Home Minister, inspite of a mountain of evidences/cases against him:

2011 was a very bad year for Chidambaram. His "best friend" Swamy kept on hounding him from court case to court case. He was blamed for Ramlila maidan midnight crackdown. He was blamed for many other things, including his shaky 2009 election. But he remains the Home Minister of India still.. shamefully..

Allowing SM Krishna to be the External Minister, in spite of an FIR against him in Karnataka for alleged role in illegal mining, when he was the Chief Minister. And protecting a guy who read a Portuguese foreign minister's speech at UN, shaming India!

Sin #6: Indecision on Telangana, spoiling the economy of Hyderabad and career of students for almost the entire year:

The way Congress handled Telangana in 2011 was utterly shameful. The Andhra Pradesh state which elected the maximum number of Congress MPs in 2009, felt fully betrayed. The entire year, bandhs, violence and burning of public property continued. Hyderabad's booming economy suffered severe hit due to this indecision of Congress government for years now. The worst affected are the students who are used by politicians and are losing valuable years of their student career.

Sin #8: Not informing the nation of 1.2 billion people, who is paying for their government's head's foreign trips and surgery:

Why this hush hush about foreign trips? {Source: SamayLive}

India must be the only democracy, where the head of the government, in this case UPA coalition chief, gives no details to the fellow countrymen about her foreign trips or expenses for the trips/surgeries! Even the CIC told the PMO, but in vain.
Read more here: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sonias-foreign-trips/803085/

It is anybody's guess as to why the Congress' nucleus, Gandhi family, does not care about Indians when it comes to their foreign trips.. It seems, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, both MPs, have not even informed their work place, the parliament, about any of their trips since June 2004!

Why this secrecy?

Similar sins:

While we worry about secrecy of government chief's foreign trips, RTI, which was a boon for informing citizen about government action, is turning out to be a murder trap for activists.

The same government which is so secretive about Sonia's trips, gives crores of public ads for tainted former PMs, giving credit for everything good in India to them.. Not telling what should be told, while telling things which no one cares!

Once upon a time, Digvijay Singh had presented Anna Hazare with the Rajiv Gandhi "Samaj Seva" Puraskar for his outstanding service to the society. Of course, that was long before Anna had started his anti-corruption war directly against Team Sonia. In 2011, a virulent campaign was launched against Anna Hazare, calling him an RSS Agent and an Army Deserter. Giving company to Digvijay Singh, the usual rabble-rouser Manish Tewari went one step further calling Anna, "corrupt from head to toe"! The sickening attack on Anna Hazare was well coordinated by multiple angles of Congress machinery in 2011.

The message was clear in 2011. You talk about Congress' corruption and we will come after you.

And the Final Top-10 Sin: Attempts to curb freedom of speech over internet, by Kapil Sibal:

Protest against Kapil Sibal. {Source The Hindu}

No need to talk anything more about Kapil Sibal's highly ridiculed attempt to censor social media, than the picture accompanying here. By the way, I heard Congress even acted against these placard holders!